Day 1: Four games on tap

Published
4:00 am PDT, Saturday, September 20, 2003

Halfway around the world from its original locale, in the midst of the busiest of U.S. sports seasons, the Women's World Cup has arrived.

Unlike the wildly successful tournament of four years ago -- staged in early summer with little outside competition -- this World Cup could struggle for attention. It's already scaled-down from the 1999 version that became a phenoumenon, because organizers only had three months to plan after the event was shifted from China in reaction to the SARS outbreak.

That doesn't mean when the defending champion United States takes the field Sunday at RFK Stadium in Washington that it won't be vigorously supported. More than 30,000 seats have been sold for the game with Sweden.

The first two games will be in Philadelphia today, with Norway taking on France and Nigeria facing North Korea. Norway is the favorite in Group B, while Nigeria and North Korea are in Group A with the U.S. and Sweden.

Tonight in Columbus, Ohio, Group C begins with Germany facing Canada and Japan taking on Argentina.